3-047-025 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The French emigration from Alsace and Lorraine: Paris offices of the Relief Society, 1872. 'The harsh effects of the German Imperial decree, obliging all the inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine to choose...whether they would remain in their old homes and be counted Germans, or remove into France and keep their former nationality, have been severely felt by thousands of families in the two conquered provinces...very large numbers of those who chose to be French people have since arrived in Paris...For the relief of those who find themselves in the capital,...destitute of the means of subsistence, the Société Protectrice des Alsaciens et des Lorrains is now actively working...From morning until night the emigrants throng the offices; on an average about 150 are relieved every day in sums varying from 5 francs to 200 francs...The most important business...is the registration of those who are seeking employment...There are about 300 applications of this kind in a day. Heads of large industrial establishments and superintendents of railways take some of the men, and [some] prefer to settle in Algeria...the diligent and discreet administration of charity is doing all it can to help these distressed exiles, the latest victims of the great war'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.